Transcribed from the 1886 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition byDavid Price,

LETTERS
TO
DEAD AUTHORS

BY
ANDREW LANG

LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1886

All rights reserved

TO

MISS THACKERAY

THESEEXERCISES

IN THE ARTOF DIPPING

AREDEDICATED

PREFACE.

Sixteen of these Letters, whichwere written at the suggestion of the Editor of the “St.James’s Gazette,” appeared in that journal, fromwhich they are now reprinted, by the Editor’s kindpermission.  They have been somewhat emended, and a fewadditions have been made.  The Letters to Horace, Byron,Isaak Walton, Chapelain, Ronsard, and Theocritus have not beenpublished before.

The gem on the title-page, now engraved for the first time, isa red cornelian in the British Museum, probablyGræco-Roman, and treated in an archaistic style.  Itrepresents Hermes Psychagogos, with a Soul, and has some likenessto the Baptism of Our Lord, as usually shown in art. Perhaps it may be post-Christian.  The gem was selected byMr. A. S. Murray.

It is, perhaps, superfluous to add that some of the Lettersare written rather to suit the Correspondent than to express thewriter’s own taste or opinions.  The Epistle to LordByron, especially, is “writ in a manner which is myaversion.”

CONTENTS.